Self-administered acupressure has potential as a low-cost alternative treatment for insomnia. To evaluate the short-term effects of self-administered acupressure for alleviating insomnia, a pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted. Thirty-one subjects (mean age: 53.2 years; 77.4% female) with insomnia disorder were recruited from a community. The participants were randomized to receive two lessons on either self-administered acupressure or sleep hygiene education. The subjects in the self-administered acupressure group (n = 15) were taught to practise self-administered acupressure daily for 4 weeks...

Most women experience the worse sleep quality of their life during pregnancy and the early postpartum period. Although pregnancy typically accounts for a relatively short part of a woman's life, the related sleep disturbances may have a significant and negative impact on her long-term health. Approximately 78-80% of pregnant women experience sleep disturbances, including interruptions in deep sleep, decreased total sleep time, poor subjective sleep quality, frequent night waking, and reduced sleep efficacy...

BACKGROUND: Caregiving can be stressful, potentially creating physical and psychological strain. Substantial evidence has shown that family caregivers suffer from significant health problems arising from the demands of caregiving. Although there are programs supporting caregivers, there is little evidence regarding their effectiveness. Acupressure is an ancient Chinese healing method designed to restore the flow of Qi (vital energy) by applying external pressure to acupoints. A randomized, wait-list controlled trial was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-administered acupressure intervention on caregiver stress (primary objective) and stress-related symptoms of fatigue, insomnia, depression, and health-related quality of life (secondary objectives) in Chinese caregivers of older family members...

BACKGROUND: Puerperae exhibit generally poor sleep quality. Previous studies have shown auricular acupressure as effective in improving the sleep problems of nurses, college students, and elderly indigenous Taiwanese women. However, no study has yet examined the effectiveness of auricular acupressure in improving the sleep quality of postpartum women. PURPOSE: To explore the efficacy of auricular acupressure (AA) on puerperae who were affected by sleep disturbance...

Available systematic reviews showed uncertainty on the effectiveness of using acupuncture and related therapies for palliative cancer care. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to summarize current best evidence on acupuncture and related therapies for palliative cancer care. Five international and 3 Chinese databases were searched. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing acupuncture and related therapies with conventional or sham treatments were considered. Primary outcomes included fatigue, paresthesia and dysesthesias, chronic pain, anorexia, insomnia, limb edema, constipation, and health-related quality of life, of which effective conventional interventions are limited...

BACKGROUND: Migraine frequently co-occurs with and is triggered by sleep disturbance, particularly insomnia, and the large majority of patients with chronic migraine (CM) have comorbid insomnia. Limited evidence suggests that behavioral regulation of sleep may reduce migraine frequency, but studies to date have not assessed the viability of stimulus control and sleep restriction interventions or included objective measurement of sleep parameters. The aim of this study, thus, was to pilot-test the efficacy of a brief behavioral insomnia intervention for adults with CM and comorbid insomnia; headache diaries and actigraphy were included to assess outcomes throughout the trial...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of auricular acupressure therapy on women with postpartum insomnia. BACKGROUND: Postpartum women generally have poor sleep quality because of frequent night-time breastfeeding during the first month after giving birth. DESIGN: A one-group pretest/post-test quasi-experiment was conducted. METHODS: A convenience sampling method was used to recruit participants at a postpartum centre (doing-the-month centre) in Northern Taiwan, from January 2014-July 2014...

OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of a randomized controlled trial compared auricular acupressure (AA) on specific acupoints with AA on non-specific acupoints for treating maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients with insomnia. METHODS: Sixty three (63) eligible subjects were randomly assigned into either AA group received AA on specific acupoints (n=32), or sham AA (SAA) group received AA on points irrelevant to insomnia treatment (n=31) for eight weeks...

BACKGROUND: Sleep disorders are very common in elderly institutionalized people with dementia and acupressure recently has been associated with conventional medicine in their treatment. AIMS: Exploring the effectiveness of acupressure for the treatment of insomnia and other sleep disturbances and we want to show that the acupressure treatment is feasible also in elderly resident patients. METHODS: We enrolled institutionalized patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease with mild cognitive impairment and insomnia...

BACKGROUND: The LIFE study was a randomized controlled trial assessing the impact of a self-acupressure intervention, Tapas Acupressure Technique® (TAT®), on weight-loss maintenance. The primary analysis showed no significant difference between TAT and social support (SS) for weight-loss maintenance, while exploratory post hoc tests suggested that, among participants with highest initial weight-loss, those in the TAT condition regained less weight than those in the SS condition. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study was to assess adherence to, and satisfaction with, the experimental self-acupressure intervention in the LIFE weight loss maintenance trial...

Oncology acupuncture has become a new and promising field of research because more and more cancer patients have sought non-pharmacological alternatives for symptom management. While different mechanisms have been proposed to explain its efficacy, including theories of the neural system, endocrine cytokine or immunological regulation, its eventual role has become that of alleviating the side effects induced by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. In this paper, we have reviewed the related articles focusing on acupuncture mechanisms and applications in cancer care to provide a quick sketch of acupuncture in cancer care...

BACKGROUND: Insomnia is common in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Long-term use of sedative-hypnotic agents is often correlated with increasing adverse effects. Auricular acupressure therapy (AAT) applied to specific auricular acupoints for managing insomnia has achieved favorable outcomes in a hemodialysis unit. This pilot study was performed to demonstrate the potential of AAT for insomnia in MHD patients and to prepare for a future randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Eligible patients were enrolled into this descriptive pilot study and received AAT designed to manage insomnia for 4 weeks...

OBJECTIVES: Here, we report two cases of chronic insomnia treated satisfactorily by re-using of patients' bioelectricity. PATIENTS: First was a 46 years old male who had taken drugs for several years and depression drug for one year. He had heart beat and felt pressure pain on almost of chest. Second was a 64 years old male who had taken drugs for one year. In spite of the medication, he could not sleep at all and had glint eyes. INTERVENTIONS: Method of treatment is to put the medical tape (Chimsband) on acupoints and pressure pain points in the chest, which can be traced down by finger pressing examination...

This high-tech "teleacupuncture study" describes a neurovegetative ear acupressure effect in patients with chronic insomnia by using heart rate variability analysis. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements in 31 patients (mean age ± SD: 54.3 ± 10.6 years) were performed under standardized conditions in Harbin, China, and the data analysis was performed in Graz, Austria. Similar to our previous clinical and basic teleacupuncture research works, the electrocardiograms (ECGs) were recorded by an HRV Medilog AR12 system during ear acupressure of the Shenmen point on the left ear...

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of acupressure therapy in a sample of adolescents with insomnia using a standard polysomnographic evaluation. METHODS: For this study, 25 adolescents affected by psychophysiological insomnia (mean age 15.04 ± 1.18 years, 12 boys) were enrolled. A device known as the Sea-Band(®) was used by the patients in order to improve their symptoms related to difficulty in falling asleep. All subjects enrolled underwent two sets of consecutive overnight polysomnographic studies in the Sleep Laboratory of the Clinic of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, comprising two studies at baseline (before treatment) and another two studies at the end of 6 months of treatment...

BACKGROUND: Although conventional non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatments for insomnia are effective in many people, alternative therapies such as acupuncture are widely practised. However, it remains unclear whether current evidence is rigorous enough to support acupuncture for the treatment of insomnia. OBJECTIVES: To determine the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for insomnia. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Dissertation Abstracts International, CINAHL, AMED, the Traditional Chinese Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (TCMLARS), the World Health Organization (WHO) Trials Portal (ICTRP) and relevant specialised registers of the Cochrane Collaboration in October 2011...

Previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown that acupuncture may be efficacious for insomnia. Instead of needling, acupressure, reflexology, and auricular acupressure are procedures involving physical pressure on acupoints or reflex areas. These variants of acupuncture are gaining popularity, perhaps due to their non-invasive nature. A systematic review has therefore been conducted to examine their efficacy and safety for insomnia. Two independent researchers searched five English and 10 Chinese databases from inception to May 2010...

This second part of a series of Sino-European high-tech acupuncture studies describes the first clinical transcontinental teleacupuncture measurements in patients with insomnia. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements in 28 patients (mean age ± SD: 41.9 ± 14.6 years) were performed under standardized conditions in Harbin, China, and the data analysis was performed in Graz, Austria. Similar to the first part of the series, the electrocardiograms (ECGs) were recorded by an HRV Medilog AR12 system during acupuncture of the Shenmen point (HT7) on the left hand...

BACKGROUND: Obesity is an urgent public health problem, yet only a few clinical trials have systematically tested the efficacy of long-term weight-loss maintenance interventions. This randomized clinical trial tested the efficacy of a novel mind and body technique for weight-loss maintenance. METHODS: Participants were obese adults who had completed a six-month behavioral weight-loss program prior to randomization. Those who successfully lost weight were randomized into either an experimental weight-loss maintenance intervention, Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT®), or a control intervention comprised of social-support group meetings (SS) led by professional facilitators...

CONTEXT: Acupressure is a noninvasive strategy used to manage various symptoms. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article was to review randomized controlled trials that investigated the efficacy of acupressure for the management of symptoms. METHODS: A literature search was conducted in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medline, and PubMed using the key words acupressure, clinical trial, human, and/or randomized...